Born in Antwerp around 1530, Simon Pereyns moved to Lisbon in 1558 and subsequently resided in Madrid before relocating to New Spain in 1566. Among the paintings attributable to him are the altarpiece of Huejotzingo in the Franciscan convent of Huejotzingo in Puebla, a Saint Christopher in the Metropolitan Cathedral in Mexico City and the Altar of Forgiveness in Mexico City, which was destroyed by fire in 1967. Documentary evidence indicates that Pereyns made the Altar of Forgiveness as recompense after the Inquisition tried and jailed him for blasphemy.

The present painting, which bears an early inscription on its reverse, is a more tightly cropped version of a painting by Pereyns which is also on copper and today in the Museo Soumaya, Fundación Carlos Slim in Mexico City.